Publisher's Weekly Review
Space opera is celebrated in this capacious anthology with stories from a stellar lineup of its best contemporary practitioners. The 24 selections-which include classics from luminaries such as Robert Silverberg (who also contributes an informative historical introduction), Anne McCaffrey, Poul Anderson, and Cordwainer Smith, as well as 15 works original to this volume-illustrate the wide variety of themes that space opera can accommodate: galactic empire building across space and time in Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton's "Stark and the Star Kings"; the peculiar lives of extraterrestrial fauna in Orson Scott Card's "Renegat" (a new episode in his long-running Ender saga); interstellar piracy in Elizabeth Moon's "All in a Day's Work"; cultural identity in Nnedi Okorafor's Hugo-winning "Binti"; and military adventures (a staple of the subgenre) in stories by Lois McMaster Bujold, David Drake, and Bennett R. Coles. Although these short stories don't always have the sweep and scope of novel-length works, the new episodes of several series-among them "The Waters of Kanly" by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, set amid the events of Frank Herbert's landmark novel Dune-will make this book irresistible to space opera enthusiasts. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Fourteen new stories and 10 reprints, some of full novella length, hitching together two familiar themes, military science fiction and space opera.In his brief note, editor Schmidt conflates the two topics, believing that many readers find them indistinguishable, and leaves Robert Silverberg to discuss the matter in his historical introduction. The term "space opera," Silverberg writes, was coined by fan Wilson Tucker in 1941 and intended pejoratively; gradually the sting dissipated as science fiction began to transcend its pulp origins. We see this process reflected in the three oldest entries here: Poul Anderson's human hunter vs. intelligent alien prey, "Duel on Syrtis"; Cordwainer Smith's Hugo-winning "The Game of Rat and Dragon," in which telepathic humans and cats team up to destroy hyperspace predators; and Anne McCaffrey's seminal human brain-in-a-spaceship, "The Ship Who Sang." (None of the three, unsurprisingly, can remotely be classified as either military or space opera.) The new tales all derive from their authors' distinctive, established universes with highly developed settings, plots, and characters, making it difficult for newcomers to absorb much from a single story embedded in an unfamiliar saga. Orson Scott Card's tale introduces a new cycle spun off his endlessly intriguing Ender's Game child-warrior books. Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson extend their neo-Dune chronicle with a story set during the action of Frank Herbert's original Dune. Alastair Reynolds offers a tale from his classic space opera Revelation Space. From Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series we learn how Adm. "Black Jack" Geary got his nickname. Elizabeth Moon's tale from her generally impressive Vatta military-family saga bridges the prior novels and the new series opener (Cold Welcome, 2017). Other famous series represented here include a 1987 story from Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan space opera and new entries from Catherine Asaro (Skolian Empire), Jody Lynn Nye (Imperium), Linda Nagata (The Red), David Drake (RCN), David Weber (Honor Harrington), and more. The question remains, how likely are readers to jump from one series to another, and indeed, how many will want to? A volume to dip into rather than read right through. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This collection gathers together a wide range of space-opera stories, with a special focus on the space-opera subgenre known as military sf. While new entries in ongoing military sf series by popular authors such as Elizabeth Moon, David Drake, and David Weber are featured prominently, and many of the older reprints here including a Vorkosigan installment from Lois McMaster Bujold are also military sf, the anthology nevertheless provides a diverse representation of the space-opera genre. These military-themed selections share space with classics such as Cordwainer Smith's The Game of Rat and Dragon and Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang as well as tales from more recent major authors such as Nnedi Okarafor, whose Binti, a story of cultural and racial identity and interspecies contact, is one of the major standouts of the anthology as a whole. While the broad sampling means readers may not enjoy every tale, the wide variety on offer makes this volume worth a look for any sf reader, regardless of their particular genre tastes.--Keep, Alan Copyright 2017 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Hugo Award--nominated editor Schmidt has gathered 24 stories from some of the most popular authors in space opera and military sf. Many selections are reprints, such as the novella "Borders of Infinity" from Lois -McMaster Bujold's "Vorkosigan Saga," Nnedi Okorafor's marvelous novella "Binti," or Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton's final Stark story, "Stark and the Star Kings." Others are original contributions, often filling in gaps in their author's most popular series, including a "Skolian" story from Catherine Asaro, a "Dune" tale from Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, a "Revelation Space" entry from Alastair Reynolds, and Orson Scott Card's "Renegat," which features Ender Wiggins in his role as speaker for the dead. The preference of series entries over stand-alone stories guarantees that readers unfamiliar with these books will get a tantalizing taste of the introduced universes. VERDICT With the likes of David Weber, Jack Campbell, Anne McCaffrey, -Elizabeth Moon, Charles Gannon, and Robert -Silverberg, this is also a great anthology for those who want to sample the best authors in sf.-MM © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
